Mental health startup StartTalking announces partnership with QuikTrip
October 14, 2016 | Meghan LeVota
Editor’s note: In response to readers’ desire for quick-hitting stories, Startland News is launching a new segment, “News Flash,” to enable more coverage. Let us know what you think!
Lenexa-based StartTalking has announced a pilot partnership with QuikTrip that will make its service available to all 3,000 QuikTrip employees in the Kansas City area.
The mental health startup will provide its telehealth and online therapy services via QuikTrip’s employee assistance program, confirming the firm’s value, said founder Mark Nolte.
“We’re still very much in startup mode, but this validated our business model and proved that it can be done,” Nolte said. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to learn a lot in the pilot about what works, what doesn’t and what protocols to take in the future.”
Launched in 2014, StartTalking was inspired by Nolte’s own struggle with depression. The software provides immediate online counseling and therapeutic sessions through online messaging and encrypted video. His software is designed to catch depression and anxiety in its early stages, before things get critical.
A Liberty-based behavioral therapist from Clinical Counseling Associates Inc. will be providing the online therapy to QuikTrip employees. The therapist and Quiktrip employees will be able to access the video platform on their smartphone or laptop with StartTalking’s technology. Nolte said that QuikTrip was interested in his firm services to help cut down on travel and absentee costs.
A medical device salesman of more than 20 years, Nolte said the market for telehealth psychotherapy is around $2 trillion, and that Americans spend about $24 billion on psychotherapy.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
VideoFizz adapts greeting card app for real estate listings, closes $500K deal
Don’t miss your customers’ cues, said Laura Steward, founder of VideoFizz. Though the Kansas City-based startup originally developed its mobile app as a tool to help individuals create video compilations of their personal photos and videos, Steward and her team noticed a growing number of real estate agents using the technology to stitch together video…
Smart KCMO takes holistic approach to digital-physical infrastructure, city manager says
Kansas City’s downtown streetcar project showcases the KC smart community’s ability to tackle multiple infrastructure projects at once, said Troy Schulte, city manager. But it isn’t the only example, he told Chelsea Collier, founder of Digi.City, Friday during a Smart Metro Summit at Plexpod Westport Commons. The event was coordinated by Digi.City, the Enterprise Center…
With big KC hiring plans, Aussie-born SafetyCulture prioritizes community engagement
Though SafetyCulture is headquartered 9,000 miles away, its new North American hub in Kansas City is being intentional about driving positive local change — particularly in education, said Ross Reed. “We really want to get into the community to make an impact,” said Reed, SafetyCulture’s North American president. “We’re going to continue to get out…
Catapult International co-founder launches Swivel Software from Lenexa HQ
Online shoppers can track orders the moment they’re placed, shipped and delivered. That kind of visibility along the supply chain — from a product’s beginnings in a factory to its final destination on the shelf — is vital for freight forwarders and importers to be efficient in the international shipping industry, Matt Motsick said. For…